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Regarding AI character references
5 months ago
General
If you use these, I will blacklist you and you will never be able to commission me again. Full stop.
When giving me references of your characters, use your favorites that you've commissioned in the past or draw me an MS Paint stick figure or take a pic of something you drew on paper with your own hands. That is always better than stealing from artists and, by doing so, telling me you do not value my work. Of course I don't want to work with a loser who thinks using auto-complete that steals from everyone is acceptable.
Just don't do it. You will grow so much more if you take the time to draw something for yourself. I love refs from beginning artists or people who think they can't draw, because you actually can draw! I'm here to translate your ideas in cooperation with YOU, not the shitty plagiarism machine that's burning the world and hoarding our drinking water so it can shit out uncanny kiddie porn (which, yeah, a lot of the stuff it uses to "make" "art" is child abuse material).
tl,dr: NO ai references are allowed, I will blacklist and probably block you for using them. Be cool, draw with your own hands!
Edit: Y'all. Stop coming in here thinking you can change my mind about your fetish for shit. AI is shit. There is NO reason to use, none. If you are using it in your art for any reason, YOU are stealing from artists and YOU are degrading your own potential. I will block you for being this much of a gross loser. Whatever pathetic argument you have, I have seen it debunked. Come back when you've read some Ed Zitron and Cory Doctorow.
Resources
AI makes you stupid when you use it
https://tech.co/news/another-study-.....making-us-dumb
If AI "art" is legit, why is it being sued to hell and back by copyright holders?
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/tech.....yright-lawsuit
If AI is so great, why is it losing billions of dollars?
https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/30/.....ounting-gaffs/
AI leading to delusions, ruined relationships, and suicides.
https://www.rollingstone.com/cultur.....ps-1235330175/
When giving me references of your characters, use your favorites that you've commissioned in the past or draw me an MS Paint stick figure or take a pic of something you drew on paper with your own hands. That is always better than stealing from artists and, by doing so, telling me you do not value my work. Of course I don't want to work with a loser who thinks using auto-complete that steals from everyone is acceptable.
Just don't do it. You will grow so much more if you take the time to draw something for yourself. I love refs from beginning artists or people who think they can't draw, because you actually can draw! I'm here to translate your ideas in cooperation with YOU, not the shitty plagiarism machine that's burning the world and hoarding our drinking water so it can shit out uncanny kiddie porn (which, yeah, a lot of the stuff it uses to "make" "art" is child abuse material).
tl,dr: NO ai references are allowed, I will blacklist and probably block you for using them. Be cool, draw with your own hands!
Edit: Y'all. Stop coming in here thinking you can change my mind about your fetish for shit. AI is shit. There is NO reason to use, none. If you are using it in your art for any reason, YOU are stealing from artists and YOU are degrading your own potential. I will block you for being this much of a gross loser. Whatever pathetic argument you have, I have seen it debunked. Come back when you've read some Ed Zitron and Cory Doctorow.
Resources
AI makes you stupid when you use it
https://tech.co/news/another-study-.....making-us-dumb
If AI "art" is legit, why is it being sued to hell and back by copyright holders?
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/tech.....yright-lawsuit
If AI is so great, why is it losing billions of dollars?
https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/30/.....ounting-gaffs/
AI leading to delusions, ruined relationships, and suicides.
https://www.rollingstone.com/cultur.....ps-1235330175/
Speaking of which , I want to see more butts!
Butts are doubtless incoming. :D
and AI art can never really come up to the feeling, the soul etc. of what a human can put into an image.
I only ever used AI as a .... well not "reference" but rather as a "help" to understand certain poses which you can't find as a photo.
In fact that famous cheetah picture of mine here with the dices (not the one with the train) was a suggestion by ChatGPT - that program encouraged me to combine my animals with my other op-art stuff. But the whole concept in the end was done by me, I did the composition, this wasn't something an AI thing created for me.
I have no one else who could do that or who could help me - even if I did, they weren't here 24/7 and it wouldn't be secure that they want to help me too
Btw. painting is not fun for me, it is a "therapy" or at least some kind of "work" I can do, even if no one commissions me or asks me to do it. Keep in mind that I'm painting on canvas with acryl colors, not like you digitally in Photoshop.
Then why are you doing it?
Also, wow, fuck you too? I'm blind. I did all of my art traditionally until I couldn't anymore. I don't use shortcuts or whatever you think digital artists are doing, I still spend upwards of 8 hours on each piece.
You have really stepped in at this point. You have one chance to make this right before I block you permanently. You have absolutely crossed a line here.
Especially not when the it doesn't even "stand" at all.
Since you are blind I can't show you the picture the programm helped me through developing and putting on the correct layers and looks of colors.
Just for explanation: the cheetah is jumping towards the viewer - no AI image was created for that.
Regardless, I think I'm done talking with you. You've insulted me as an artist directly and now you're just making weird assumptions about me. I'm tired of going in circles and you can't even be bothered to apologize. I hope you find joy in art or embrace a hobby that does make you happy since this one apparently doesn't. Take a trip to the local zoo or check out some National Geographic pics, they'll give you a lot better reference.
It sucks, cause I want to see my characters to come to life. And I can't do that... Of course, people like you help me with that.
Do not use AI to "create" anything. It literally destroys your ability to learn and improve in your own art skills.
I've often warned people against using AI refs, telling people that it's a very good way to get blacklisted. It's a little depressing how much pushback I get on that angle. People being "Hey now, I'm just using it in order to get real art" and all that BS.
Lemmino's video is at least a year out of date right now and it was already working with misinformation when it came out.
I don't care what excuses you use to justify stealing from people, I do not agree with you and if you're telling me here that you think it's fine to rob from hard working artists then you're out. There is NO reason to use genAI. Not ever.
it also pisses me off when people rely on gen AI shit for writing. not just for-fun creative writing, but for school stuff?? like what the hell??? it's actual brainrot.
I know one person who used it to summarize their older written works so they had less to dig through when writing something new (this was all fiction), but that is legit the first time I've ever heard of anything being useful in AI for writing. People using it in school is just gross and several studies have now come out proving that it makes you stupid.
literally the amount of bitching they do and how long it takes for things to work could be used practicing to be better. AI bros spent 3 years getting this shit going and spent more time and effort to cheat when its cheaper and faster to just learn rofl. It's incredible.